Chaucer 1340-1400: The Life and Times of the First English Poet

This new biography appears six hundred years after the death of Chaucer. In it Richard West vividly portrays the character of the poet, the major stages of his life and the impact of national and international events such as the Hundred Years War, the Protestant Reformation and the overthrow and murder of Richard II. Furnished with Chaucerian and other contemporary sources, the book is aimed at a general audience and is free from the Chaucerian baggage' that betrays some studies of Chaucer.